How Our Technology Works

How Our Technology Works

Question: How does your exhaust gas cleaning system work ?

Our exhaust gas cleaning system, or scrubber, is similar to wet scrubbers. We both use a basic liquid absorbent to react with the acidic sulfur dioxide gas. The key difference is we do not spray the liquid absorbent into the exhaust stream to mix with the exhaust. Instead, we suspend the liquid absorbent in membranes to come in contact with the exhaust but not mix with the exhaust. Only the sulfur dioxide is absorbed.

Learn more about our the advantages of our patent pending membrane scrubber over wet and dry scrubbers in our Technology Comparison.

Question: What is in your absorption solution, is it safe, what about the byproducts ?

You can run our scrubber with a variety of absorption solutions, just like wet scrubbers. The absorption solutions include seawater, sodium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, and potassium carbonate.

Seawater

Na2CO3 + H2SO3 → Na2SO3 + H2O + CO2(Sodium Sulfite)

Na2SO3 + ½O2 → Na2SO4 (Sodium Sulfate)

Na2CO3 + H2SO4 → Na2SO4 + H2O + CO2(Sodium Sulfate)

Sodium Hydroxide

SO2 + NaOH → NaHSO3

NaHSO3 + NaOH → Na2SO3+H2O

Magnesium Hydroxide

SO2 + Mg(OH)2 → MgSO3 + H2O

Potassium Carbonate

K2CO3 + SO2 → K2SO3 + CO2

2K2SO3+ O2 → 2K2SO4

In addition to generating sulfates, a non consumable reversible absorbent can also be used.

Question: The exhaust from heavy fuel oil is very hot and dirty. Would your membranes not simply get fouled and stop working after a very short time ?

We uses ceramic engineered membranes, able to withstand the extremely high exhaust temperatures. We also operate our membranes in 'dry' mode, avoiding the buildup of black carbon.